In 2013, Cozy Cloud’s main need was for a fund to invest in the company’s start-up and structuring phases. Together, by putting in the time, expertise, and resources, we were able to bring this project to maturity.

CozyCloud

CozyCloud has developed a cloud solution for managing personal data and the services used to access it.

Jérôme (Innovacom): When Benjamin André and Franck Rousseau came to us with their plan for an open source platform that would revolutionise personal data management, we immediately saw the real value-added in their solution. By letting individuals run their own server to process, synchronise and host data from all their devices, including IoT, they were creating a real digital home. They were giving people back control of their disparate data spread across social networks, messaging apps and other GAFA services (offered by Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple). We also realised this was a complex project that would take time and resources to pull off and need support beyond a simple cash injection. It would also require a solid and creative team to work up and mature the project for a year before we committed ourselves – wholeheartedly.

Benjamin and Franck (Cozy Cloud): While it took some effort to persuade Innovacom of our idea’s potential, we ended up with a particularly effective and trusted external partner. They gave us an objective view, in a way we couldn’t get from a paid consultant. And their skill set covered administrative matters as well as business and strategy issues. The decisive factor, besides their grasp of the technological issues, was their deep knowledge of companies’ creation, life cycles and the needs of firms like ours going through the process of structuring their business. Their intervention was notably crucial to the recruitment of Tristan Nitot (ex-chairman of Mozilla Europe) as Chief Product Officer. Innovacom brought us a cool head, while showing genuine respect for the team in place and their independence.

As the alter-digital movement emerges, Cozy Cloud is looking to become “the” benchmark for personal cloud solutions and is unafraid to position itself against its rivals. In addition, the start-up is planning to roll out its services to a handful of large corporate customers: insurance companies, banks, facilities or telecoms operators.